


Firefly

by morganoconner



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-25
Updated: 2010-09-25
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morganoconner/pseuds/morganoconner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tag to 6.01 – Castiel can only watch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Firefly

Castiel didn’t have _hands_ in this form, at least not hands as a human would understand them. But if he did, they would be clenching and unclenching to the beat of a heart he didn’t currently possess. They would be trembling with every wrong move Dean made, with every misstep the hunter took, with every painful moment of terror Castiel felt for the human he’d named as his charge.

He begged with a voice that knew only song, prayed to a Father who wasn’t there to hear him, pleaded to Sam, though he was so far out of reach. _Help Dean. Please, save him. Sam, he needs you. Now, Sam!_

Because Castiel couldn’t.

Because for all that Dean was _his_ , his charge, his friend, _his human_ , Castiel couldn’t go to him. Not yet, no matter how much he craved it. No matter how much his very grace cried out for Dean.

Heaven was still in tatters, and though Castiel wouldn’t normally have thought twice about leaving, flying to Dean’s rescue the way he wanted to so desperately, he knew that if he left now, there’d be no getting back. The way to Heaven would be barred to him, the gates closed by renegades who’d been plotting since his return. And until he sorted out these last rebels, he was as good as trapped here.

Caged.

He was, whether by miracle or design or both, Heaven’s most powerful angel now, and he was as trapped in this place as the proverbial firefly caught in the jar.

He’d been given the task of sorting out his home, his family, his brothers. If he wanted the freedom Dean had earned with his blood and his sacrifices to last, Castiel had to make sure he succeeded in that mission. Dean had earned the right to know that everything he had done hadn’t been for nothing. And only Castiel could give him that.

But as he watched Dean fall beneath the combined force of two of the djinn, he’d never hated his Father more for putting this duty on his shoulders.


End file.
